Guest Blogger entry by C.P.:

Basically our story is this… We (Benn and C.P.) began working together as Assemblage Point in early 2006.

We used to spend Sunday arvos in the studio making the most whacked-out music you can imagine. Then we went and played it on the street, performing as buskers.

Many were perplexed. Some were inspired. The police were really, surprisingly annoyed and kept telling us to stop. Apparently, to the police, an Akai MPC and a tenor sax looked like lethal weapons when brandished on the streets of Sydney!

So we went back to the studio and, suddenly, songs started coming to us that would form our debut album.

Somewhere along the way, one of our early recordings called Cent’nal Dub won the 2007 Global Marijuana Music Award for ‘Best Experimental Song’. And we weren’t even stoned when we wrote that one! Being awarded this high accolade (hehe) only intensified our recording fever and by June 2008, the debut self-titled album from Assemblage Point was ready for release.

The album (which was a labour of love for us for about a year) has gotten us quite a few compliments and this pleases us. It was released through Um Records.

In 2009 we’re taking the Assemblage Point live show around the world and we’re very excited!

We are also organisers and hosts of an “omni-artistic” party called A.P.H.I.D and plan to do more of these in other cities… possibly even yours, so look out!

Press info.:

Assemblage Point are a Sydney duo who enjoy being creative with sound and music. For the sake of categorisation, their self-titled debut studio album is a unique brand of experimental pop with more obvious musical influences coming from hiphop, dub, jazz, industrial, rock and electronic dance music. However, as much as Assemblage Point respect and enjoy the work of some artists in all of those genres and more, they do not enjoy the limitations of genre.

The album is a journey through colourful and expansive aural terrain – from the exploding drums and battlecry of Fire!, to the sweet and deadly funk beat and melody of Cent’nal in Babylon, to the otherworldly info-mercial rapping of PVG (led by guest vocalist Catriona), to the industrial poundings and floating ambient vocal of Go Right Down – Assemblage Point explore their musical dreams in series of original recordings that were collected over a year or so in 2007/2008 at Sydney’s Studio Soundsbent.

“Assemblage Point certainly manage to hit more than a few interesting buttons” – Chris Downton, Cyclic Defrost Magazine review of Fire! single

“It will be truly interesting to watch these Sydney-siders develop their sound from here” – Time Off Magazine review of the first Assemblage Point single Cent’nal Dub

The Assemblage Point album is available now through UM Records.

UM Records Official Website

Assemblage Point MySpace

Sun, surf and this summer’s coolest boutique festival. Sydney’s northern beaches have got it all!

The Rising Tide will be held at Rat Park, Pittwater Road, North Narrabeen, Sydney, Australia on Saturday, 21st February 2009, Noon until 10 pm where British India head the 20 strong lineup, performing over 3 stages.

The Rising Tide will:

* make people aware of the implications of climate change …
* bring together a line-up of young local bands and headline acts …
* give a space for a like minded community to come together and have a red hot good time …

The Rising Tide will have:

* over 20 acts
* The hottest bands and local performers
* 3 stages
* Food stalls from around the world
* Eco-stalls: global warming, composting, energy and water conservation, green issues
* Dozens of other stalls – healing, crystals, clothes, exotica and many more
* Chai Tent
* Bar
* Fairground rides – dodgems and more

Earlybird tickets are available for $39.

The line up is:

British India
Old Man River
King Tide
Dead Letter Chorus
Mick Hart
Cuthbert & The Nightwalkers
The Jezabels
Stone Parade
Saving Grace
The Third Cycle
Botanics
Serenik
The Shady Band
Ashleigh Mannix
Dave Calandra
and many more

For the latest information, go to:

The Rising Tide Official Website

The Bravery got its start in 2003 after college friends Sam Endicott and John Conway relocated to the Big Apple and began putting a band together. After playing their first gig at the Stinger Club in Brooklyn in mid-summer, the Bravery’s style of post-punk-influenced dance rock came at the right time and they soon found themselves a record deal with Island Def Jam and leading the New York revival.

2005 saw them release their self produced eponymous debut album of unabashedly rapturous new wave pop trash which featured the Triple J favourite ‘An Honest Mistake’ as well as “Unconditional” and “Fearless”.

Their sophomore album ‘The Sun and the Moon’ was released late 2007 and saw them exploring added textures and new instrumentation. A re-imaged remixed version of the album will be released as a specially packaged 2 disc set along with the original version of the album to coincide with the tour as The Sun and the Moon Complete. It will include remixes of the singles “Believe” and “Time Wont Let Me Go”.

The Bravery will be in Australia in June 2008 for the We Love Sounds Winter Festival as well as playing a few select side shows. This will be their second tour of Australia following a sold out tour in 2005.

Australian East Coast Tour:

June 2008

4th Wednesday – Sydney, Metro (634 George St, City)
Tickets $42 + bf from metrotheatre.com.au, oztix.com.au and Ticketek

5th Thursday Melbourne, Corner Hotel (57 Swan St, Richmond)
Tickets $42 + bf from www.cornerhotel.com

7th Saturday – Melbourne, We Love Sounds

8th Sunday – Sydney, We Love Sounds

10th Tuesday – Brisbane, The Zoo (711 Ann St, Fortitude Valley)

Tickets $42 + bf from www.zoo.com.au, www.oztix.com.au or phone 1300 762 545

The Bravery Myspace
The Bravery Official Website

OK, so I’m in love. With a brother and sister from Sydney, Australia. But before you jump to any conclusions, this is not a recipe for some Channel 5 ‘documentary’. Anything but, in fact. I merely refer to Angus & Julia Stone’s first long player, ‘A Book Like This’.

Their last release, the 2007 EP ‘Heart Full of Wine’, established them as a duo with relaxed, sunny harmonies of the folk variety – you may have heard the tracks “Private Lawns” and “Mango Tree”.

‘A Book Like This’ continues on this theme and is utterly, utterly lovely. Each track unfolds slowly and wraps itself around you beguilingly, with vocal duties shared between Julia’s witchy, Joanna Newsom-style singing and Angus’s outpourings, which sound like a slightly gruffer Nick Drake. Backed by acoustic guitars, shuffling drums, piano and occasional strings and harmonica, the pair’s offerings come off like a more accessible Devendra Banhart or a kookier Magic Numbers – surely no bad thing.

The album is comprised of sensitively crafted and delicate ditties such as opener “The Beast”, a poignant meditation on the frenetic pace of modern life; or the captivating love song “Wasted”. The title track, smack bang in the middle of the album, is a creeping and impassioned plea to a lover with some wonderful guitar work towards its conclusion.

The band’s lyrics have an essence of the fairy tale about them – but a fairy tale laced with darkness. For instance, on “Soldier”, Julia wails: “I’m the darkness but I want to be the light”, as if under a spell. They could easily soundtrack a Tim Burton film, something like Big Fish or Edward Scissorhands.

It’s Julia’s voice which provides the highlights for me, accompanied by Angus’s wonderfully melodic backing vocals. However, at times her brother’s more conventional vocals are welcome, to avoid Julia’s deliciously raggedy intonations becoming grating.

Tracks like “Hollywood”, a meditation on the way movies mislead us (”Cinderella would of scrubbed those floors til her hands/Grew old and tired nobody would look her way”) typify this fey quality; an aspect of the album which might put some off. Jaunty tracks like “Stranger”, on which Angus takes lead vocals, are a welcome respite and help keep the listener’s interest. The bluesy “Jewels and Gold” recalls a latter day Neil Young with a twist.

Subtlety is the key to this album. Its songs are extremely pretty (as are the band actually!) and ostensibly fit within the folk tradition, but calling them a folk act is not to undercut the muscle which expands each track as it gets going. With the spring tentatively showing itself in the UK, this enchanting album is perfect to sit back and listen to, glass of wine in hand, window open, as the wind gently ruffles your hair.

Angus and Julia Stone are on tour in the UK from April-May 2008.

Angus & Julia Stone on Myspace
Angus & Julia Stone Official Website

By: Lindsey Davis

The Live Earth Australia concert will also include live performances by acts Crowded House, Jack Johnson, Wolfmother, John Butler Trio, Eskimo Joe, Sneaky Sound System, Paul Kelly, Ghostwriters, Blue King Brown and Toni Collette and The Finish.

Based in Melbourne, Australia, Missy Higgins has had great success in her home country with both her debut album, The Sound of White and her second and most recent album, On a Clear Night released in April 2007. With Missy’s upcoming appearance at Live Earth this will certainly help to introduce her and her music to more fans from around the world.

Watch Missy Higgins “Steer” video

By: Jenny May

Based in Melbourne, Australia, Blue King Brown is a band with a message. Their lyrics are politically tinged and their sound, as bassist Carlo Santone said during an interview last year, is “inspired by music from around the world”. They want to do something new to the roots genre and bring a contemporary edge to it. I think they’ve succeeded here – and are probably one of the best bands to go out and see play live.

With their music and politics in mind I feel comfortable including singer Natalie Pa’apa’a and Blue King Brown in a similar category as Bob Marley, Zack de la Rocha, Santana and Pete Seeger. They’ve toured with other jam band, world roots and reggae bands such as Michael Franti, John Butler Trio, The Cat Empire and Damian “Jr Gong” Marley.

Watch the Blue King Brown video for “Water” (Off of their Stand Up album)

Blue King Brown is set to play Live Earth in Sydney, Australia on July 7, 2007.

Blue King Brown 2007 tour dates are as follows:

*Dates could be added or changed. Go to Blue King Brown’s Official Website for the latest tour dates and information.

May 20 2007 GREENROOM FESTIVAL (OSAKA) OSAKA (JAPAN)
May 21 2007 CLUB QUATRO-NAGOYA NAGOYA (JAPAN)
May 26 2007 GREENROOM FESTIVAL (YOKOHAMA) YOKOHAMA (JAPAN)
May 27 2007 DUO MUSIC EXCHANGE (SIDE SHOW) TOKYO (JAPAN)
Jun 9 2007 THE DREAMING FESTIVAL WOODFORD, Queensland
Jul 3 2007 MAKE POVERTY HISTORY: ZERO SEVEN ROAD TRIP BENDIGO, Victoria
Jul 7 2007 LIVE EARTH SYDNEY
Aug 4 2007 SPLENDOUR IN THE GRASS BYRON BAY, New South Wales

Blue King Brown Official Website
Blue King Brown on Myspace

“Get up, stand up: Stand up for your rights!” – Bob Marley ; Peter Tosh

By: Jenny May

So far the bands scheduled to play at the Australian Live Earth Concert, set to take place at Aussie Stadium in Sydney include: Crowded House, Jack Johnson, Wolfmother, John Butler Trio, Missy Higgins, Eskimo Joe, Sneaky Sound System, Paul Kelly, Ghostwriters, Blue King Brown and Toni Collette and The Finish. The Live Earth worldwide concert event is on 7/7/07.

Tickets for Live Earth Australia go on sale in Australia Friday May 18, 2007 at 9.00 a.m. AEST at: www.ticketek.com.

Other Live Earth concerts are being held in Tokyo, Shanghai, Johannesburg, Wembley Stadium in London and Rio de Janeiro before concluding at Giants Stadium in New Jersey.

For more information go to the Live Earth Official Website.